Mariestad!

So this week, I've decided to travel to the different cities around Skövde :). First, it was Hjo on Tuesday, and now Mariestad today! One of my lovely teammates, Marie, lives in Mariestad. When she invited me to come visit, how could I say no? I hopped on a bus that morning, that's right, I had to figure out the bus system haha! I like to think I'm becoming pretty ok at figuring out my way around Sweden :). So yeh, once I hopped on the bus, it was a 40 minute ride to the station in Mariestad which is situated on the largest lake in Sweden, Lake Vättern.

Once I got there, Marie picked me up from the station and after we had parked her bike, we walked around the town. We ducked in and out of shops just browsing the stores before having a fika at a local cafe. After our fika, we went to the Mariestad Cathedral. Ok well I have a thing for old churches and this one did not disappoint at all! It's well over 400 years old and has gorgeous Gothic architecture! I could have sat in that church all day... Thank goodness Marie is so sweet and didn't mind me staying there for nearly an hour snapping photos haha! After I finally managed to drag myself out of the church, haha, we walked down to the harbour and over to Crowned Princess Victoria's summer residence. It was beautiful... at least from the outside :). After that, we stopped by her house to say hello to her mom and to pick up the bikes.

One thing I've learned about Sweden is that it is not built for short people, haha. The jeans are made in regular and long - no shorts. Also, bikes can be very difficult to ride if they're made for someone taller than yourself. I looked hilarious trying to ride Marie's Mom's bike! But it's all good, because even though I looked funny, we didn't have to walk all the way to the lake. It was such a beautiful day to lay on the beach and go swimming. This time, the water was much warmer! Not quite the bath water temperature I'm used to back home, but still so much warmer than Lake Vättern. After we swam for a bit, we dried off in the sun before heading back to Marie's house to drop of the bikes.

Next we went to another old church, the Church of Leksberg. According to the pamphlet we picked up, the church was built in the 14th century possibly earlier. Since it was built, the church has undergone several rennovations. So many, in fact, that not much of its original structure still exists. Regardless, it was a gorgeous church to look at. We weren't able to go into this like we were the other one. We did, walk around the grounds for a bit, though. On the grounds, is a statue from the Bronze Age!!!!! I think that's pretty indicative of this church's deep roots. The headstones in the cemetary dated back several hundred years including several that were so old we couldn't even read.

After we left the church, we went back to the harbour to have gelato and ice cream with two of Marie's friends. We couldn't stay long since I had to catch my bus. It was such a great day in Mariestad, but I had to head back to Skövde because some of the girls were getting together to go bowling!

When I got back to town, I had to ride my bike as quick as I could back to the dungeon, shower, and be ready for Lina to pick us up. It was such a great time! Lina, Elise, Amanda, Priya, and I all headed to O'Leary's for some good ol' fashioned fun! It actually ended up being cosmic bowling night at the bowling alley! While we were bowling, Juha and some of his buddies showed up. After we finished our games (my score was not as terrible as I would have thought; think I would have made my Poppop proud :)) we just hung around the restaurant/bowling alley and talked and watched baseball... Honestly, I couldn't have asked for a more relaxing and fun day!!!!